White Horse Tavern, West Village

Overview

By Chris Lukic

First opened in 1880 and most famous as the bar where Dylan Thomas drank himself to death.

The White Horse Tavern has inhabited the corner of Hudson and 11th since the late 19th century when it replaced the James Dean Oyster House. It may have long ago itself been replaced were it not for the fact that Dylan Thomas chose the location as the place to drink himself to death in 1953, thereby creating a place for it in the annals of literary history. Today it attracts a fair, but not overwhelming number of tourists to mingle with the neighborhood locals. They seem to mix well, which is fitting as Dylan Thomas, a Welshman, was in New York as a tourist himself.

Why you should go

One of the oldest bars in New York City, The White Horse Tavern first opened its door in 1880.
A mix of tourists and locals makes for a friendly and varied crowd.
Service at the bar is quick and attentive.
The foot traffic in the area makes for great people watching in the summer months.

What you should know

From April to October the sidewalk tables are a great place to people watch.
While literary lore has it that Dylan Thomas drank 18 shots of scotch before dying on the stoop here, the truth is a combination of a huge dose of morphine and undiagnosed diabetes led to his collapse the morning after spending the night drinking in the bar til 4am.

History

Doors opened in 1880 and stayed that way

Our old headline asked whether there was a better place to drink yourself to death, leaning on the bar's most famous legend. The record here is milder: by the 1950s the tavern had become better known for hosting writers and musicians, among them the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas¹.

The White Horse opened in 1880, and as one account put it in 2022, its doors haven't closed since^{1, 2}. It's the second-oldest continuously running bar in the city¹. Eddie Brennan bought it in 1967, and in March 2019 Eytan Sugarman signed a 15-year lease to maintain the century-old bar^{1, 3}.

The doors are still open at 567 Hudson Street, until 3:30 in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays⁴.

Sources

Researched October 2026.

White Horse Tavern

In 2026